A Long Way Home
by sinemoras09
Summary: Kabuto brings Rin back to life. AU. Obito/Rin. Spoilers for chapter 606.
1. Beginnings

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He decides to walk tonight. There are more convenient ways to travel, but his sharingan is spent and his chakra is thin, and it is not the first time he has traveled like this. Though slower and more cumbersome, he does not mind walking. In fact, he prefers the smell of dust and sun-burnt earth to the Kamui's gaping emptiness, how the darkness around him is dotted with punctate stars.

Around him, the darkness stretches, and the land is bare except for the rocks and scattered trees dotting the craggy landscape. As a child, he had no idea what he would see, crossing oceans and mountains and watching civilizations be razed and spent, the smell of dead bodies littering the ground.

But there is no such thing as loneliness, when conviction and purpose light his way. Darkness rolls, and Obito pulls back the hood of his cloak, walking forward.

xXx

.

"Tobi! You're back," Zetsu says, but the plant has a worried look on his face, moving physically to block Obito's path. "We were not expecting to see you so soon! Maybe you should wait a moment," Zetsu says, but Obito pushes Zetsu out of the way, entering the mouth of the cave.

"Tobi! Wait!"

Obito stops, then turns. "What is it?" Obito says, and Zetsu's face looks more pale than normal.

"Kabuto did it," Zetsu says. "He said he was doing an experiment-"

Obito shoves Zetsu back, then steps forward.

The door opens. Obito's eyes widen.

"Tobi! Tobi! We tried to stop him!" Zetsu rushes behind him and skids to a halt, while Obito stands at the doorway, a barely contained rage bubbling at the back of his throat. "He said he was doing an experiment, he said he was perfecting the Edo Tensei-"

"Where is he?" Obito says.

"Tobi-"

"I said, _where is he_?" Obito says, and Zetsu yelps, jumping back.

"I don't know!" Zetsu says, but Obito activates his sharingan, searching for the trail to Kabuto's chakra.

Behind him, Zetsu glances back at the bedroom nervously, watching as the woman with the brown hair starts to breathe.

xXx

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The door to Kabuto's lab swings open. "Ah," Kabuto says, and he rises. "I see you have found my gift, Uchiha Madara-san."

His arm slams into Kabuto's throat. Beakers rattle, Kabuto slamming heavily against the bench.

"Release it," Obito says.

"Release what?" Kabuto's voice, though strained, is infuriatingly calm, and Obito squeezes his grip tighter, making Kabuto wheeze.

"The Edo Tensei. Release it," Obito says. Kabuto looks up at him and grins.

"That would be unwise, Uchiha Madara-san. If I release the technique, your army will be cut too thin-"

"Release it on her," Obito says, and he lets go of Kabuto's neck, Kabuto's body dropping to the ground.

Kabuto coughs, then winces, rubbing the front of his neck. "I would have thought that you would be pleased," Kabuto says. "My little birds tell me all sorts of things. I would have thought you'd thank me for my generosity."

"I told you," Obito says, and his eyes narrow. "Release the technique now, or else I will peel back all the layers of your scaling skin."

"Come now, Uchiha Madara-san. We need not resort to needless violence." Kabuto slithers upwards, grinning. "That technique is different from the Edo Tensei. I couldn't release it if I tried."

Obito's eyes narrow. In all the years he has spent leading the Akatsuki and Bloody Mist both, he has learned the value of patience, especially when dealing with the lot of errant men. Minor, petty annoyances. Evidently, Obito's silence is permission for Kabuto to speak; he crawls, grinning and oozing guile, as he rises back onto his feet.

"I see you are wondering what it is I did," Kabuto says. "As I said, it was an attempt to perfect the Edo Tensei," Kabuto says, and he smiles again. "Let's just say it was an application of light and dark chakra, much like that Rinnegan in Nagato's eyes. It was, shall we say, an elegant piece of work," Kabuto says, smiling. "I am actually quite proud of myself."

"Why?" Obito says.

"You would have to get more specific than that," Kabuto says. "There are many answers to the question, 'why.' Like perhaps the answer, 'why not?'"

"Why her?" Obito says.

"Funny you should ask that. And here I thought you would be happy, reuniting with your long, lost love-"

The blow that comes knocks Kabuto off balance; the second one slams him forward, pitching him to the side.

"You can't kill me, Uchiha Madara-san," Kabuto says. "I am the one controlling the Edo Tensei. Without me, they cannot be stopped."

"I no longer care about the Edo Tensei," Obito says, and Kabuto's eyes widen.

The room explodes in smoke, and suddenly there's nothing but sound and vibration, Kabuto's voice floating through the air.

"Forgive me, Madara-san. But as you can see, I'm rather found of my snake's skin."

Obito grits his teeth. _Genjutsu_. It paralyzes his body and blinds his eyes.

When the smoke clears and the vibrations cease, the room is empty, and Kabuto has suddenly disappeared.


	2. Coming Awake

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It rains in the land of the Bloody Mist, and Rin shivers, drawing the cloak around herself. Rin is unfamiliar with the cold, which seems to soak through her heavy cloak and gloves and settles at the seat of her chest: men have fought and died and lost battles because of the cold, and Rin knows well enough to not ignore it.

The katon sparks, then flares, and soon torchlight is provided by a modest fire, lighting her path and warming her. Obito had taught her that trick once, the only jutsu he had managed to master, and while Kakashi had sniffed and sneered and rolled his eyes, Rin had been pretty impressed. "Really?" Obito said, and his eyes were as wide as his goggles when Rin congratulated him, clapping him on the back. "It's not anything special, all the Uchiha can do it-"

"Well just because the Uchiha can do it, doesn't mean everybody else can," Rin said, and Obito blushed and stammered and his ears turned red, and Kakashi rolled his eyes and loudly pointed out that any idiot with enough hot air can do a katon, after which Obito sent him an irritated glare.

It's the last thing she remembers: lighting a fire, tilting her face upwards toward the rain. And then she's blinking, lying in a strange bed and hearing voices floating around her.

"-Tobi will be _mad_," someone is saying, and she hears someone shift, laughing softly to themselves.

She opens her eyes and sees it: someone standing, naked from the waist up and sickly pale, while another man stands, hooded in a dark cloak with yellow, slanted eyes.

"She's awake," the pale one says, and Rin bolts upright. Her eyes are wide and she's breathing, hard.

"Hush, child," the other man says, and Rin can see it, the pale yellow eyes and the slick scales on his skin. "Do not be afraid."

"Where am I?" Rin says. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

He reaches out a hand, but Rin dodges, narrowly missing his grasp and darting off the bed.

"_Stop_," the snake man says, and Rin feels herself freeze, feels her legs weighted into the ground.

She feels them hoisting her off the floor, before her eyes roll back and she passes out.

xXx

.

She wakes again, and she sees the man with the pale skin peering down at her.

"We got you something," the man says, and Rin pushes herself on her elbows, staring at him, warily. The man smiles. She can see the jagged edges of bared white teeth.

Her eyes adjust, and she realizes he looks as if he's naked. Rin looks up at him, thunderstruck.

"Oh, this?" the man says, and suddenly huge pontoons of leaves sprout from his back. "I forgot I should cover myself. It's been so long since we've been in front of a proper lady."

He tells her his name is Zetsu, and that his other half is out doing reconnaissance. "You wouldn't like him," Zetsu sniffs. "He's old and serious and not much fun _at all_."

The soup doesn't seem poisoned, but then again, many poisons were odorless and colorless, and Rin decides not to risk it. Beside her, the strange plant man talks and laughs and doesn't quite answer her questions, mostly because he doesn't seem to understand her when she asks.

"Where am I?" Rin says.

"Why, you're sitting right here!"

"What do you want with me?" Rin says.

"I think it's to irritate Tobi," Zetsu says, and before Rin can ask him who the hell is Tobi, the door opens. Heavy footsteps step inside.

The first thing she sees is his eye. Piercing and red, its sharingan glowing like the embers of slow-burning coals, the eye peers out through the single eyelet of his mask, narrowed and frightening in its intensity.

"She's really pretty, Tobi!" Zetsu says, and Rin's head snaps forward. In the shadows, she can just make out the outline of the man's form; light spills and she sees it, how each movement is imbued with subtle menace, and she knows without asking that he could kill her with a single look.

And the look he gives her is predatory, a wild animal sizing up its prey.

"We have preparations," the man says, and Zetsu jumps up, wildly.

"But Tobi! She's awake now, and she has lots of questions-"

"I don't care," the man says, and he turns.

"It is too much of a bother to kill her. Take her outside and let her go."

"What?" Zetsu says, and Rin's throat tightens.

"You heard me," the man says, and his eye slides upwards.

"It doesn't matter. After the Moon's Eye is complete, none of this will even matter."

He starts to turn, finality dripping from the words in that last statement, but Zetsu jumps up, hands clenching up into fists.

"But I want to talk to her!" Zetsu says, and the man turns, watching him, warily. "Tobi, we've never had female before, and even in the Akatsuki there was the only one, but now she's dead and we thought we could get to know her better, and-"

"Fine," the man says. "Do whatever it is you want. Just do not involve me." And he turns, his cloak billowing with the movement.

"Wait!" Rin says, and she jumps up, Zetsu grabbing her by the arms. "Wait! You said you would let me go!"

"Thank you, Tobi!" Zetsu says, and Rin struggles under Zetsu's grip. The choke hold is tight, and for the second time, Rin finds herself passing out.

xXx

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"You're the first female we've seen up close!" Zetsu says, and blearily, Rin opens her eyes.

Zetsu is crouching over her. She turns her head and sees another Zetsu, then a third, all staring down at her, curious.

"Aw. We're sorry we made you pass out," the other Zetsu says. "We've never seen a female up close before!"

"Are those breasts?" Another Zetsu says, and Rin clutches her shirt, pushing herself upright.

"Oh! Those _are _breasts!"

"They look really soft!"

"Can I touch them?"

"I bet Tobi wants to squeeze them!"

"Get away from me," Rin says, and the Zetsus rear back, startled.

"Sorry! Sorry!" They all look at her, curious and child-like, and Rin clutches her blanket, terrified.

They trained her for situations like this. Rape as a means of interrogation. Torture. Her palms are cold and she feels the hairs on her neck stand on end, but the Zetsus sit cross-legged around her, curious.

"Don't worry, Rin-chan," one of the Zetsus says, _sotte voce_. "We don't have any boy parts. See?" and he lifts up one thick leaf, showing her.

After Rin successfully convinces them that looking a lady's private parts is improper and totally impolite, the Zetsus take her around the compound, leading her with a fervent energy. "This is the command center! This is the armory, and this is the army!" they say, and Rin's eyes widen when she sees the thousands of squirming, writhing Zetsus curling up together in the pit. "We grew up there," the other Zetsu says.

Rin rubs her arms. She still has no idea why she's here, or where she is, or what that masked man and his army of pale-skinned freaks have to do with anything, but the Zetsus are happy and eager, puppy-like and trying their best to answer her questions.

"Genjutsu?" Rin says, and the Zetsus wag their heads, happy and eager. "But if everyone's under a genjutsu, won't everybody eventually die?"

"Of course not," Zetsu says. "Tobi can re-make everybody's bodies in the other world! It's a perfect plan," Zetsu says, a five year-old making up stories, and Rin frowns at them, holding her arms.

She doesn't know what's happening. Somehow, between the time she passed out in the Bloody Mist and the time she's woken up here, the lands have been thrust into a fourth ninja war, and she's in the middle of it, at the enemy's home base. If they knew where their hideout was, they would have a better chance to form an attack. Rin glances behind her shoulder, then frowns.

"He said he would let me go, right?" Rin says, and the Zetsus nod. "But I promise you I won't leave if you give me some privacy. A lady needs it," Rin says, and the Zetsus jump up, happily.

"Sure, Rin-chan! We can give you privacy."

"Is it your time of the month?"

"Just," Rin says, and she ushers them out the door. "A little privacy. Okay?"

"Okay!" they say, and Rin forces a smile before shutting the door.

She runs around the little room, looking for anything that could serve as a weapon. She tears out the drawers and flips the pillows over the bed posts, and when she doesn't find anything she runs to look out the window, scaling the wall.

The room is built high into the edge of a cliff, overlooking the black ocean waters crashing onto the shore; waves crash against craggy rocks, and around her, the cliff face is frosted with moonlight, steep and smooth and unforgiving. She can barely see the shore below her.

She glances out the door, where the Zetsus are congregating.

There is no other way out. Experimentally, Rin lets her chakra light up at the tips of her fingers, and presses an experimental pat on the wall. Her hand sticks. Rin looks back down at the cliff outside, frowning.

She climbs down the cliff face. It's easy, ordinarily, to scale walls and climb ceilings with her chakra, but the wind is cold and icy and her fingers are red and numb. Carefully, Rin inches downward, hair whipping sharply while the rest of her clothes violently flap across her like banners, nearly making her lose her balance.

The wind increases, and the moonlight dims as clouds begin to gather. Then it starts to rain.

Her arms shake. Rin inches down, chakra waning, but the wind picks up and rain starts to pour in torrents. Her fingers lose their grip. She slips, but manages to catch herself, just barely managing to hold on.

"Rin-chan!" Rin looks up, sees the Zetsus clambering by her window. "Oh no! Rin-chan! She's leaving!"

"Tobi!"

A harsh spray of icy water slams into her back, and she grits her teeth, clinging to the side of the wall.

She manages to hook her fingers into the smallest edge of a crack in the cliff face, her foot edging toward the sloped piece of jutting rock, when her foot slips; the rock crumbles and her chakra gives way, and Rin's arm snaps, hurtling forward.

Rin screams. The ground comes closer and closer and she can see the jagged rock jutting out toward her, the mass of waves crashing and the sound turning into a deafening roar, when suddenly a hand appears from nowhere and a man whirls out from the darkness, wrenching her backwards, until she's sucked into a vortex and spat out, tumbling, landing hard against her shoulder and slamming into the floor of her room.

She coughs. Her hair is wet and plastered to her face, and her clothes stick to her body. She's shivering, crouching on the floor and shaking hard, while the man just stares at her, having landed easily on his feet.

"I told you," the man says, and he turns to Zetsu, glaring. "I told you not to bother me with her."

"But she was going to fall!" Zetsu says. The man's eye narrows.

"Tobi," Zetsu says, but the man leaves again, teleporting outside of the room.


	3. Uchiha

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_There are certain advantages to being an Uchiha: girls, money, prestige - the status of Elite Motherfucking Shinobi, and knowing that if anyone even thinks about messing with you, you can whip out your badass sharingan and show them who's boss._

_Sometimes Obito wonders if he was born into the wrong clan._

_"You know why you don't have the sharingan, don't you?" Kakashi says. Obito glares and Rin sits with her hands on her knees, listening attentively. "It's because you lack the talent."_

_"Teme!" Obito says. Kakashi shrugs._

_"It's true," Kakashi says. "The other Uchiha our age have already awakened it. Maybe you're just learning impaired."_

_"Kakashi! That's enough," Minato says, and behind him, he hears Rin trying not to laugh._

_Obito's lack of sharingan continues to plague him through the rest of the year: at the chuunin exams, no one believes him when he tells them he's an Uchiha, staring suspiciously and squinting their eyes. "Where's your sharingan?" the other genin ask._

_Obito mumbles and rubs his neck, "I haven't got it yet," and the other genin squint._

_"How come?" they ask. "I thought all Uchiha get it by now."_

_"Well I didn't, okay?" Obito says._

_He doesn't need the sharingan to see the Uchiha genin roll their eyes._

_"You shouldn't get so down on yourself," Rin says later, after they both pass, Rin by a comfortable margin and Obito just barely so. They sit on the swings, Obito and Rin, and Rin pushes herself lightly, her hair moving slightly on the breeze. "You're a good ninja, even if you are a little goofy."_

_"Goofy?" Obito makes a face. "Who says I'm goofy?"_

_"Everyone does," Rin says. It hurts Obito's feelings but Rin touches his hand._

_"I like that you're goofy," Rin says. She's leaning close, and Obito can feel his heart thudding in his chest._

_"Rin," Obito says. A drop of sweat forms at his brow. "Rin, I-"_

_"Kakashi!" Rin says. She jumps up from the swing, smiling. "Kakashi, what are you doing here?"_

_Of course._

_Rin is the only one who's kind to him. Even when she ignores him, tagging alongside Kakashi and making Obito the awkward third wheel. She laughs and smiles and touches Kakashi on the arm, and when she notices Obito sulking a few paces behind her, she stops and runs beside him, gripping Obito by the hand and pulling him forward._

_"You're gonna get left behind, dummy. Stop walking so slow!"_

_Her hand is warm and good and Obito feels himself start to blush. "Does he have to be here?" Obito says. Rin laughs at him._

_"He's our friend. Of course he does."_

_"He doesn't have to," Obito says, but Rin is already distracted, catching the battered sign of a goofy photobooth in front of the drugstore._

_She insists on taking a group picture. "Why?" Kakashi says, and Obito just stands and glares at him while Rin laughs and shakes her head._

_"Because I want something to remember us by," she says, and she wraps her arms around both of their shoulders, Kakashi and Obito, bringing them close and smiling broadly into the camera._

_The picture that comes out is telling: Kakashi bored and Obito nervous, and Rin smiling, broad and wide._

xXx

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After the Zetsus confessed that they told her everything-showed her the armory and even laid out all of his battle plans, Obito had told her bluntly that she was too much of a risk to let go. She took the news the way any good shinobi would, stoically, but with a touch of desperation. He could almost see her considering whether or not it would be prudent to try stabbing him in the neck with her pen, but one look with his sharingan knocked enough sense to keep her from trying it.

The situation, Obito realizes, is getting entirely too hard to handle.

She is nothing. A nuisance, a well-placed clog sticking the wheels of his war machine. It irritates him more than anything, and more than once he wonders if it would be better to just be done with it and kill her, and resurrect her later.

But he can't bring himself to kill her.

Somewhere, in that dark, old part of him, Obito knows there is a chance his plan may not work. The war might be stopped; the bijou might be released. The shinobi forces might interfere, and if Obito loses, he would risk losing Rin too, and he does not want to die with her blood on his hands.

He is, if nothing, meticulous. He will lock her up, if only to keep her safe.

He takes over guarding her because he can't trust the Zetsus to do it, and so he watches her quietly, counting the slow rise and fall of her breath as if it would purge the longing from his body. Despite himself, he feels that vapid, boyhood fervor rising like a tidepool in his mind, stupid, banal crush, the soft warmth of her skin a poisonous temptation.

But he would not use her needlessly. Once the Moon's Eye plan goes through, he will give her the life she should have: one with Kakashi or someone else, any man of her choosing. And she will be happy and healthy and forever alive.

xXx

_._

There is a sound coming from Rin's room, and when Obito enters, he sees it: two Zetsus lying unconscious, Rin brandishing one sharp, sword-shaped thorn.

"Don't come any closer," Rin says, and she holds the blade against Zetsu's neck. "I'll kill him unless you let me go."

"You should," Obito says, and he can see how her eyes just barely widen, how she's caught by surprise. "Anyone as useless as to get caught is of no consequence to me."

She shoves Zetsu on the ground, holding out the blade. "Oh? What's this?" Obito says. He lets his amusement show. "You cannot threaten me."

Rin gives him a deliberate look, then moves the blade to her neck. Obito's eyes widen.

"There," Rin says, and she presses the blade closer, a bead of blood welling at the tip. "I'm valuable to you. You want me alive for some reason. Well. Step closer and I won't give you the chance."

"Think carefully about what you do," Obito says, and he steps forward.

"Not another step!" Rin says, and the blade digs closer.

Obito slowly raises his hands. "Fine," Obito says, and he backs up into the shadows.

He teleports faster than she can see it, whirling from the corner of the room and re-appearing behind her, grabbing her by the wrist and forcing her to drop the blade.

Rin cries out. He shoves her back against the bed, kicking the weapon to the side.

He twists her arm back. "Never do that again."

He shoves her forward, making her stumble then sag, falling to her knees.


	4. Night

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.

_He's staring at Kakashi again. Rin itches uncomfortably, before moving to touch Obito on the shoulder._

_"What's wrong?" Rin says. She sees Obito glance back at her._

_"Nothing," he says, but it doesn't sound like nothing, and Rin pushes herself up from her bed roll, frowning. They're lying down for the night, putting out their bed rolls and setting up their camp. Beside them, Kakashi is sleeping upright with a blanket draped over his shoulders - Rin's blanket - after he insisted that lying down wasn't right for shinobi, and coolly proclaimed he would sleep upright, if only to guard the others._

_Rin, of course, thinks it's stupid, even moreso that Kakashi had refused to bring a bed roll. Secretly she suspects that Kakashi simply forgot, but Kakashi just smirked and said Shinobi Rule 21 is to always sleep with one eye open, after which Rin rolled her eyes and offered him her extra blanket._

_Now Rin is cold and Obito is staring daggers at Kakashi's head, as if silently willing himself to awaken his sharingan and send genjutsu daggers spiralling his way._

_"Obito, stop staring," Rin says, and she turns her back toward him. "It's seriously getting really creepy."_

_"Why did you have to give it to him?" Obito says._

_"Give what?"_

_"Your blanket," Obito says, and Rin doesn't have to turn to know that Kakashi is rolling his eyes._

_"You can have it, if you want," Kakashi says. She sees Obito turn. "Blankets would just impede my movements."_

_"I'll impede your movements," Obito says._

_"I'd like to see you try."_

_"Hey, hey," Rin says. "Kakashi didn't pack any blankets. You're already sleeping with one," Rin says._

_"That's not the point," Obito says._

_"Well then what is the point?" Rin says. Obito glowers._

_"It's just-" and he looks at Kakashi again. "I don't know! It's just not fair."_

_"Kakashi forgot," Rin says, quietly. "He's trying to save face. Just let it be."_

_"But Rin-"_

_"Stop it," Rin says. "You're always acting this way, picking fights for no good reason! I'm getting sick of it," Rin says, and she realizes she's spoken too bluntly, because he looks at her and his eyes look as if they're about to water._

_"Sorry, Rin," Obito says, finally, and he turns over in his bedroll, not looking at her._

_It's cold. Rin pulls her blanket around her shoulders and shivers, teeth chattering. Behind her, Kakashi is sleeping. She hears Obito turn._

_He wraps his blanket around her before she can say anything, then moves and curls up against the cold ground._

_"Obito?"_

_"I'm fine."_

_She sees him draw his knees up to his chin, shivering under his thin jacket._

_"Obito, you don't have to. I already have another blanket-"_

_"Yeah, the thin one. Because Kakashi is a stupid jerk."_

_Rin bites back a laugh. "Come here," Rin says, and Obito just sort of reddens and stammers. "Come here," Rin says again, and she pulls him closer._

_They huddle together under both blankets, Obito and Rin, and there's nothing unusual about it, pressing together for warmth. It's the first rule in survival basics, and she feels him relax under her palm._

_"I'm sorry I got so mad," Obito says. "It's just...your blanket is on him, and he probably doesn't even appreciate it, and it probably still smells like you, and..."_

_"You're so weird," Rin says, and she cuddles against him._

_She's always known. Years later, she will remember the little things, the shy, embarrassed looks, the awkwardness. But he's clumsy and loud and he's like her dopey brother, and so she chooses to ignore it, the half-crumpled valentines and stuttered apologies. The day he dies, she stays beside him, stroking his hair and holding his hand._

_There is blood on her fingers when Kakashi pulls her out, and after he tells her how much he loved her, Rin can't stop crying for days._

_But she doesn't know this yet. She cuddles beside him and lets him spoon against her back, and in the morning Kakashi just sniffs and rolls his eyes._

xXx

.

She stops trying to escape. After the disaster with the Zetsus - "It's okay, Rin-chan, there's a lot of us!" - she realizes there really is no point. And though their leader seemed reluctant to hurt her, he doesn't really care about her either, and that suits Rin just fine. "It's our fault," Zetsu says. "We shouldn't have told you Tobi's plan."

"Yeah," the other Zetsu says. Rin frowns, hugging her arms.

The days pass. She doesn't see anyone besides Zetsu, and she wonders silently if their leader had gone out onto the battlefield.

She sees him on the third night. His cloak is torn and there's a gash on his shoulder. He looks as if he's broken an arm.

"You're hurt," Rin says. The man ignores her, favoring his right side sitting heavily on the bed. "What happened?" Rin says.

He gives her a look, then moves to bandage his hand.

A moment passes. Rin hovers over him uncertainly.

"If you wish to leave," he says, and he lets his good eye roam upwards, meeting hers, "Now is the best time to do it. I will not stop you."

Even without examining him, she can tell his chakra reserves are low: he's weak, and even with the mask she can tell he's exhausted, moving as if every muscle in his body aches. "You are staring," he says, but he doesn't look at her, as if the movement is enough to tip him over the edge. "You are deluding yourself if you think you can take me."

"I wasn't-" but Rin cuts off, and she realizes that, in fact, she was, except she realized early on she probably wouldn't be a match for him. "I'm a medic," Rin says. "I can be useful."

He watches for for one long moment, and Rin holds her breath. He's dangerous, a warlord and head of a criminal clan. If she can get him to trust her, she might be able to do something. His good eye narrows.

Gingerly, Rin takes his arm. The skin is raw with burn marks and beginning to slough off, large welts and star-shaped bruises circling his wrist. For a moment, she's afraid he'll try to hurt her, but for some reason he seems as nervous as she is, and Rin's mouth tightens, concentrating.

Her chakra pulses, and soon the skin begins to knit. Minutes pass, and the bruises fade into a yellow hue.

"You know," Rin says, and the man turns to look at her. "I used to have a friend who sat like this, all the time. He used to get hurt a lot, and whenever I healed him, he'd lean against me, just like you do."

Rin smiles, caught up in the memory. "He was always getting hurt," Rin says. "He used to pick fights with the better members of our team, and...well he wasn't very good," Rin says. "He was clumsy and awkward, and he fought like he had two left feet. But he was a good person," Rin says. She glances up at him, then looks back at his hand. "He died, saving me."

His muscles are tense. Gently, Rin lets him bow his head, brushing back his hair and frowning at the angry wound slashed at the back of his neck. "It's like they tried to cut off your head," Rin says, and he gives her a withering look.

There are countless wounds, small, shallow scrapes on the ridges of his collarbone, thumb-sized bruises on his biceps and forearm. She heals them all, slowly, carefully, hands gently mapping the length of his skin.

It takes her almost the length of the entire night, and it's only after a few hours pass that Rin realizes that he's fallen asleep.

She watches him, crouched on a chair at the foot of the bed, as the man sleeps. His breathing is deep and his head droops against the bed post, the side of his mask starting to slip. She steps close, then considers fixing his mask.

But she doesn't. Gingerly, she tugs the blanket out from under him, then drapes it over his shoulders, frowning slightly before pulling her knees to her chin and squatting silently below the window.


	5. The Morning After

.

.

It's early morning, and Zetsu moves quietly through the compound, stopping for a moment to look out the window. Outside, the landscape is gray and covered in a light rain, and Zetsu frowns, listening for some sign of movement in the other bedroom.

He stops by the door briefly, then listens. After he doesn't hear anything, he phases through the doorway and glides into the bedroom, surprised to find the two of them sleeping, the woman under the window and Tobi propped up against the bed, asleep with a blanket draped over him; neither of them start to wake, entirely unaware of the watery light starting to fill the room.

Zetsu frowns. Though Tobi has half of Hashirama's cells, Zetsu knows well enough that his human side still needs a little sleep. It's like using the toilet, Zetsu thinks, except that he's doing it in front of the human girl, and he wonders briefly what Black Zetsu would think of it.

Well. It's none of his business, anyway, and Zetsu hums a little, melting into the wall.

xXx

.

She stirs, then wakes, her back protesting from spending the night resting against the wall. Slowly, she opens her eyes, blinking in the gray morning light, before she realizes the man is still crouched in front of her.

Rin freezes. The man is still asleep; his head is pushed up against the bed post, and his shoulder leans heavily against the head board.

A moment passes. From eyelet of his mask, the creases by his eye seem smooth, peaceful, and around her there is nothing but quiet, the lean shape of his body slack in repose. And maybe she breathes a little bit different, because she turns and finds him staring back at her, sharingan turning, liquid fire and reading everything.

Her heart clenches. She breathes hard, panicked and staring at him with the whites of her eyes, when he looks down, noticing for the first time the blanket draped heavily across his shoulders.

"I'm sorry," Rin says. Quickly, before he can turn his eye and teleport her into another dimension. "You fell asleep. I didn't want to wake you."

He stares at her for one long moment, before rising. The blanket falls, puddling in a heap by his feet. "I wouldn't move that arm too much," Rin says, and he looks back at her again, as if measuring her words. "You were beat up pretty bad. I did a few spot jobs but the wounds are still raw."

He's still staring at her, eyes a hands-breadth away from her temple, looking down as if he could see inside her. Rin swallows, fighting back the fear that's creeping up her throat. He looks at her as if his eye could touch her, could trace the small bones of her wrists and the delicate crooks of her inner arms, and she shivers, despite herself, almost afraid to breathe.

"You are afraid of me," he says, and his eye slides toward hers. "It is not unexpected."

Something about the way he says it settles painfully in her chest. The situation, strange as it is, the helplessness that comes with it.

"Of course I'm afraid," Rin says, finally. "I'm being held prisoner here, I don't know if I'll live or die. This is torture," she says, and for a brief moment she sees it: shock and surprise, then a deep and overwhelming sadness, but then it's only a trick of light, because he's just standing in front of her, watching.

"I have no plans to harm you, so long as you cooperate," he says.

"Well then what do you want with me?" Rin says.

"Nothing," he says, and his eyes narrow. "You just need to be here."

"Why?" Rin says, but he says nothing, grabbing his cloak and striding out the door.

xXx

.

He is infuriated with himself. He thought he had killed off that part of himself, but here it is now, a crack in his resolve.

"Tobi!" Zetsu says. "I saw what happened! Are you okay?"

He slams Zetsu into the wall, neck breaking and body crashing onto the ground.

He thinks of the last time he held her: the weight of it, the coldness of her body and the deep gouge that oozed at her side, and how he fell upon her, weeping, his tears mixing with streaks of blood pooling at the back of her mouth.

But she is alive, and she had touched him, and in that moment he had let himself lean against her, breathing in her scent and closing his eyes.

He pushes back the dead Zetsu with the side of his toe, frowning. If he were to admit it, in the deepest, darkest part of himself, her being here had fortified him: she gave him a reason not to fail.

That night, he sits alone in his room with his head in his hands, before rubbing his shoulder, an the unfamiliar ache. He looks out into the moon and doesn't sleep, choosing to watch the textures and shapes of things in the inky darkness, and how the swath of sky is dotted with tiny stars.


	6. Questions

.

.

What is a man who never knows peace? Restless, roving state, wandering from country to country, from one pocket of earth to the next?

Obito has seen too much – he has seen arrows rising and steel shattering, people dying, slipping away.

xXx

.

_There is a carnival in town. All day, Obito bounces from one foot to the other, working up the nerve to ask her; it's only when Rin catches him by surprise - "Obito! There's a carnival, do you want to come?" - that Obito manages to nod stupidly and let her take him by the hand, bodily dragging him toward the village center._

_"This is nice, isn't it?" Rin asks. Around them, the night is warm and paper lanterns glow in all different colors, and Rin sucks on a piece of candy, smiling at him._

_They are selling balloons in the street corner. Obito purchases one, fully intending to give it to her, when he sees it: Rin waving and calling out to Kakashi, fully forgetting that she came with him._

_He stands, heart crushed and the balloon in his hand. Around him, the crowd moves past him quietly, water passing over a darkened stone._

xXx

.

The weeks pass, and Obito avoids her. It is not a conscious decision: he has too many preparations to make, gathering allies and visiting the five kages at their ridiculous summit. "There will be war," Obito tells them, because Rin is alive and he can't afford to keep wasting time.

He doesn't use the kamui to travel, opting to go in on foot, when he sees a pile of rubble and rock where there had been none, a man-sized hole piercing through the ground and exposing their secret lair.

"Oh! Tobi! You're back!"

He's in battle mode when the Zetsus wave at him, smiling and moving around the pit. Around them, huge shafts of light pour into the center of the crater, the mass of translucent bodies knocking holes through the thick rock walls.

"What is this?" Obito says, and the Zetsus bounce, happily.

"Rin-chan showed us! She said we needed to let some light in," Zetsu says, and Obito turns sharply.

"Zetsus need sunlight," Rin says, when Obito finds her, watering some absurd vegetable garden she had started growing in the middle of the cave, and she stares at him, angry and defiant and crossing her arms. "They're plants and you keep them locked underground, and it's probably why they're all so weak! They need the sun," Rin says again, and Obito just stares at her, too baffled to say anything.

After he manages to get a hold of himself (after which he tells her, without mincing words, that she should be thankful she's alive, that he has too many other things to worry about than wringing the necks of ridiculous medic nin girls), he stalks over to the other side of the compound, when he realizes things have been moved: the weapons in the armory have been rearranged and stacked; his battle fan, left lying in the corner, is placed neatly into the weapons rack.

"What is this?" Obito says again, and Rin huffs and rolls her eyes.

"This place is so messy! I can't stand it here! And it's not as if I have anything else better to do," Rin says. "You left me alone for almost a month."

She is testing him. She has already figured out that she won't be killed, so now she is trying to find out her limits. Fine then. Obito turns his back toward her, ignoring the headache which has settled dully at the side of his temple. If she wants to test him, so be it. He has more pressing things to attend to.

xXx

.

_It's nighttime, and he walks onto the training fields, planning to work on his katons and throw a few shuriken, when he sees her sitting on a workbench, shoulders hunched and crying. "Rin?"_

_She looks up. Moonlight falls on her face and he can see her eyes are puffy, streaks of tears smearing the sides of her face and dripping down her chin._

_"I tried to tell him," Rin says, and her chin wobbles. "I tried to tell him, but he ignored me. He doesn't even know I exist, Obito!" Rin says, and she starts to cry again._

_Obito watches her, sadly. Of course. Kakashi was a lot of things - a genius, cool and talented and better looking than him - but while all the girls threw themselves at him, Kakashi steadfastly ignored them, proclaiming bluntly that shinobi were tools and girls were a waste of his time._

_Rin cries and Obito sets down his weapons and hugs her, letting her bury her face into his shoulder. "I've always loved him," Rin says. She sits up from his shoulder, wiping her eyes. "I thought if we were teammates, we would get closer. But he doesn't even know I exist," Rin says. Obito hands her a tissue and she blows her nose, sniffing pathetically._

_They sit together for a moment, neither of them saying anything. It hurts him to see her so sad, and all at once he just wants to run up and punch Kakashi in his stupid face, to yell at him and tell him to look at her! Look at Rin, the most beautiful girl int he world, and you're treating her like worthless trash!_

_His hands clench, caught up in the fury of his inner monologue, when Rin looks up at him again, hiccuping and blinking back tears. "Can I ask you something, Obito?" Rin asks. "And you'll promise me you'll tell me the truth?"_

_"Yeah," Obito says. "Of course." She looks down at her hands, the damp tissue twisting and shredding in her fingers._

_"Am I pretty?" Rin says. She looks up at him. Her face is blotchy and her nose is red and running, and large wet patches stain the sides of her cheeks._

_He takes another tissue and blots her eyes, then gently brushes back a strand of her hair. "You're beautiful," Obito says, and Rin smiles and starts crying again, hunching her shoulders and hiccuping, quietly._

_"Thanks, Obito," Rin says. "You're a really good friend," and Obito just sits and nods and tries to swallow the knot in his throat._

_"Want me to beat him up for you?" Obito says, finally, and Rin laughs, resting her head on his shoulder and giggling. "No, Rin, I can fight dirty! I can put laxatives in his lunch first. Seriously."_

_Rin laughs again, and Obito smiles, holding her hand._

xXx

.

"Do you eat?" Rin says.

Obito looks up. After the last debacle with the vegetable garden, Rin no longer is afraid of him. She takes to following him around, an irritating shadow, no doubt egged on by a few of the countless Zetsus roaming around the halls.

"I'm just wondering," Rin says, and Obito closes his eyes, reminding himself that her train of thought will eventually dissipate, that she will grow bored with his silence and leave him alone. "I was just wondering, since the Zetsus say you don't need to sleep. But I saw you sleep that one time, so I was wondering, do you get hungry, sometimes? If your chakra is depleted?"

He lets her see his sharingan. Rin pales, then shuts up a little after that.

The next day, Rin cuts him off at the corner and says, "You never told me your name."

His eyes narrow and he pushes her to the side, determined to keep walking forward.

"Hey," Rin says, and she follows him. "Uchiha-san," she says, and it's jarring enough to make Obito stop and turn.

"Uchiha," Obito says, and the syllables elongate, rolling the word like a marble under his tongue. "And what makes you say that?"

"Because of your sharingan," Rin says, and Obito's eyes narrow.

"I could have transplanted it," Obito says. "I could have stolen any number of eyes. You do not know that about me."

"I can tell," Rin says, and he can see her trying to read him, to divine if he is going to lie. "Your chakra would be uneven around a transplanted eye, but it's not. It's smooth. I can tell your other eye is transplanted," Rin says, and she frowns at him, peering around the mask. "But I don't know why you keep it covered. Why bother transplanting it if you don't use it to see?"

It gets too tiresome, teleporting from room to room.

After she keeps harassing him about his name, Obito falls back on the lie he tells everyone: that he is Uchiha Madara, that he has a vendetta and he is hundreds of years old. "Then why do they call you Tobi?" Rin says.

"Who?"

"The Zetsus," Rin says, and the headache Obito is nursing seems to increase tenfold.

"You should ask them," Obito says. Rin only frowns.

xXx

.

It's dark outside, and in the compound there is little light except for the errant glow of candles lit inside her room. He watches as Rin sits in front of the mirror and stares at her reflection, at the hollows of her cheeks and the dark circles around her eyes.

"I don't remember," Rin says, and her eyes flick upward, meeting his gaze in the mirror's reflection. "I look at myself and I see that I've aged, but when I think back, I don't remember..."

"Do not trouble yourself with it," Obito says, but Rin shakes her head.

"I have nightmares," Rin says, quietly. "Sometimes it feels as though my heart is being stabbed through my chest, and there's blood in my lungs and it's hard to breathe."

Obito says nothing. Quietly, Rin hunches up into herself, a familiar gesture. "I don't know why," Rin says, and there's a haunted look in her eyes, "but I feel as if I've already died."

Obito says nothing. Beside them, the candlelight flickers, its muted glow casting motes of shadows on the naked walls. "Oh, your wound," Rin says, and Obito cocks his head, looking at her.

"I have no wounds. I have not been injured."

"No, from last time," Rin says, and she motions for him to sit. "I told you, I only did a rush job, I just want to make sure you've healed."

Obito bristles. "I am fine," he says, but she's insistent, moving in front of him and pushing back the fabric of his cloak.

The capsule of his shoulder is stiff, and he feels small hands plying chakra to the poorly healed areas, breaking down adhesions and softening ragged scars. More than once, Obito has considered cutting off his human arm and replacing it with the Zetsu's, but the process would be troublesome, and Obito would have to train all over again.

"I need to move this back," Rin says, and she tugs at his sleeve. "I can't heal you properly with so much of this covered."

"I told you," Obito says, and he moves his arm. "I do not need to be healed."

He is about to stand, ready to put an end to this ridiculous conversation, when Rin touches his arm, small fingers circle the bones of his wrist. "Let me work on it," Rin says, and Obito sits down slowly, watching her.

He pushes up his sleeve. He is not about to pull off his shirt for her, which seems superfluous and altogether undignified, and his shoulders stiffen when she touches him again, palms lying flat on the muscles of his back. "You don't like being touched, do you?" Rin says, and Obito looks back at her, regarding her quietly.

"It creates openings," Obito says, softly. "Unnecessary attachments. The very things that lead to hurt and despair."

"It sounds lonely," Rin says, and he feels her chakra pulsing inside him, a soothing warmth. More than anything he wants to lean beside her, to give into that base part of himself and lay her memories bare. But the truth remains: she died. She never loved him. And though she looks at him with compassion in her eyes, he wants nothing more than to hurt her, kill her, clasp hard at her arms and drive himself inside her.

But he would never do that to her.

She finishes healing him, but her hand is still firmly pressed against the side of his back. They sit like this for a moment, just the two of them, before Obito rises and Rin goes back to bed.

What can be said about the shape of his grief? The form of his emptiness, the knife in his heart? It is a howling, restless thing, full of soundless fire and hurt and pain.

He stares at his reflection in the mirror, the Rinnegan bobbing in a jar of milky water, and starts to transplant the eye. The scar on his face is a star-shaped crack at the center of a pane of fractured glass, and when he lifts his gaze, he sees one eye red, sharingan spinning, and the other eye nothing but an angry socket, dark and raw and gaping at him like an open mouth.


	7. The Cruelty of Sight

.

.

There is no light with him as Kabuto glides down the dark halls of the Akatsuki compound, pausing to push back the hood of his cloak. The month of self-imposed exile was nothing but boring to him, and if Kabuto has any regrets, it is that he is formally cut off from the rest of the war. "It is, they say, an exquisite jutsu," Kabuto says, and Tobi stands and stares while Kabuto smiles, broadly. "A shame to waste it, when it has so much potential for battle."

"Hmph." Tobi glares at him, and Kabuto spreads his hands, a gesture of supplication.

"I would not presume to know what the great Uchiha Madara thinks," Kabuto says, and he bows deliberately low. "Again, I apologize if I misread your wishes. I thought she would be a wonderful gift."

"Then tell me why should I just not kill you now?"

"Because you are still missing the main ingredients," Kabuto says. "The half-chewed tentacle of the Eight-Tails, and the pathetic chakra twins of the Nine. Who is to say that is enough to forward your plan? I mean no disrespect, of course," Kabuto says. "I just find a relationship like ours would be, shall we say, _mutually beneficial_."

It is an uneasy alliance, but Kabuto does not mind: it makes things more interesting, breaking up the monotony of his days.

He doesn't see the girl, who evidently had been sequestered in a different part of the compound. Kabuto's mouth stretches into a knowing grin.

His little birds, you see: they have never steered him wrong.

xXx

.

She's eating alone in the long dining hall, the table long enough to accommodate forty men. Meetings and plannings have taken place in here, but Rin takes her food and sits alone in the half-lit darkness, the single light from the lamp above her casting a bright glow onto the bowl of rice on the table.

She's sitting at the head of the table, holding a bowl of rice by her chin and scooping mouthfuls of food with her chopsticks, and it's only when she's almost done with her second bowl of rice that Tobi appears, sliding silently into the chair just to the right of her.

"You want some?" Rin says, and she holds up another bowl. He looks at her, and she pushes the bowl forward.

"Don't tell me you don't need to eat," Rin says. "The Zetsus told me you do."

He looks at her for a moment, then picks up the bowl, turning it over in his hands.

The way he tilts his mask, just enough to edge his chopsticks quickly inside, makes Rin laugh. He stops, then looks at her oddly, and Rin shakes her head, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Sorry," Rin says, and she bites back a laugh. "I just figured you'd take off your mask."

The bowl clangs a little too loudly when he sets it back down on the table.

"Do you eat by yourself?" Rin says, and he turns his head slowly, as if carefully considering his words.

"On occasion," he says, and Rin takes his bowl again, loading it with rice and pickled radish, pushing it across the table.

He stares at it as if it were rigged with explosives, and Rin smiles again. "I won't look," Rin says, and she smiles, gently. "I know you probably have a lot of scars."

She is getting used to reading his movements, because now his good eye widens imperceptibly, a brief flash of surprise. "Medic nin," Rin says. "I can tell by the scarring around your eye."

"Hmph." He picks up the bowl again, considering.

She keeps her promise. Gamely she forces her eyes downward, waiting for him to shift his mask. But he doesn't. She lifts her eyes again and he is looking at her with a content sort of expression, and she realizes this is the first time she's seen him relaxed. "What else do you know about me?" he says, because he seems genuinely curious, and Rin shrugs, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"It looks like you gouged out your second eye," Rin says, and she motions to the left side of his mask, seeing the gaping maw of chakra where his eye should have been. "Why did you take it out?"

"I was about to replace it with something more useful," he says, and he shrugs a little. "But it was not yet ready."

Rin doesn't ask need to ask. The practice is ghoulish, and she knows too well how enemy nin sometimes steal each other's eyes - sometimes, the organ doesn't work right away, the shock and trauma of the original owner's death depressing its chakra and hampering its abilities, so much so that the user can go unintentionally blind.

"Would it make it better," he says, slowly, "If I told you I did not kill him?"

Rin blinks, then nods. "I figured you probably killed a lot of people," Rin says, and he spreads his hands.

"A necessary evil," he says. "But a small price to pay for lasting peace."

They lapse into silence. Rin continues eating and the man watches her quietly, as if her eating has a calming effect on him. She glances up and catches his eye, and he blinks and looks away quickly; she wonders if he's blushing behind the mask.

She washes the dishes, warm water washing over her hands. The dishes clink softly as she sets them on the countertop, and she silently marvels how a coterie of monsters and masked masked men manage to have a proper kitchen.

He's still watching her, standing behind her.

"Madara-san," Rin says, and he looks up. "I was wondering if I could go outside?"

The request seems to catch him off guard. "I won't leave," Rin says, and she dries her hands, setting the towel on the countertop. "I just want to look around."

"Where would you like to go?" he asks, and Rin frowns.

"What do you mean?" Rin says.

"I can take you anywhere," he says, and there's a touch of pride in his voice when he explains, "The kamui makes it so I can teleport across moderate distances. If you name the place, I shall take you there myself."

He probably can't take her home, which is the first thing that springs into Rin's mind, but it seems he's starting to trust her. Rin shakes her head and smiles. "Nowhere far," Rin says. "I just want to take a look at the compound. If that's okay, of course."

The man nods. "I will permit it," he says, and he holds out his hand.

It is the strangest sensation: a sudden blackness, cold and windy, and she has no sense of direction, of which way is up or down or even the position of her body, when they materialize suddenly, just outside the range of mountains jutting upwards at the charcoal sky.

"Where are we?" Rin says, and the man walks forward, waiting a little for her to follow him.

"Outside the compound," he says, and Rin follows him, craning her neck upwards at the large turrets of animal bones, cutting past the branches of trees and spiralling high above her.

"They call this the Mountain's Graveyard," the man says, and Rin can understand, walking underneath what looks like an upturned ribcage, white spots of ground like bumps of vertebrae pushing out from the rock. "There are no visible entrances, only secret tunnels buried under the rock. It is easier to teleport from here."

They walk a little bit, the sound of dead leaves crunching under their feet. "I find it strange," the man says, and Rin looks up at him, curiously. "You are a medic nin. And yet you are squeamish about eyes."

"It's not that." Rin frowns, kicking a pebble as she walks. "I transplanted an eye once. It was awful," Rin says.

"How so?" the man says. He isn't looking at her, hands hidden deep in the sleeves of his cloak.

"Because it was from my friend," Rin says, and she shudders to herself, remembering: Obito, pinned down under the rock, Kakashi crying and Rin trying to steady herself, bursts of uneven chakra lacerating the whites of his eye.

"I hurt him," Rin says. "He was dying. And his last moments were full of pain."

He stops suddenly, and Rin nearly bumps into him, so caught up in the memories of Obito's death. "Did he ask you to?"

"What?"

"Your friend," he says, and his good eye meets hers.

"Did he ask you to do it?"

"Yes," Rin says. She rubs her arms, remembering. "He got crushed under a rock, and our other friend hurt his eye. So he told him he could have his."

"Hyuuga?" the man asks. Rin shakes her head.

"No," Rin says. "Uchiha."

"Then your friend should consider himself lucky," he says, and he keeps walking. "The sharingan is an excellent eye."

Something about his words twists a knot in her chest, and she rushes forward, angrily.

"How could you say that?" Rin says, and the man turns. "People are not meant for spare parts. How could you be so cruel?"

The wind stirs. Rin glares and folds her arms, and the man tilts his head upward, following the sky.

"You removed it, I take it?"

"What?"

The man looks at her. "Your friend's eye," he says. "You told me you hurt him. Then you told me he died. But he asked you to," the man says, and his eye bores into hers. "You should not feel so ashamed."

Rin bows her head, blinking hard. "I hurt him," Rin says, and she remembers: harsh bursts of chakra, the smell of charred flesh, how Obito's body seized up, the visible side of his face contorted with a silent a scream.

"Did you stay with him?" he asks. "Your friend, before he died?"

"No," Rin says. "The ceiling was collapsing and we had to leave."

"So quickly?" the man says, and Rin shakes her head.

"I don't want to talk about this," Rin says, and she pushes past him, walking forward.

The touch on her shoulder is firm, reassuring, and Rin looks up, surprised.

"I find it hard to believe that cave collapsed so quickly," he says. "It seems to me that you probably stayed with him, and that your presence probably comforted him."

She remembers: clutching his hand, crying over his chest.

His hand is still on her shoulder, and the grip is sure. Strong. Rin nods, shakily, and the man lets his arm drop. "I cannot imagine you being cruel," the man says, and Rin looks up at him again. His sharingan is deactivated, and the dark brown iris seems familiar. Sad.

"Well," he says, and the strange intimacy between them drops, "Next time, make sure to kill him, first. It would be a mercy," he says. And then,

"Sometimes people are meant to die."

xXx

.

She thrashes in her sleep. In dreams, she is haunted by a boy with missing eyes, trickles of blood dripping down like tears.

She moans. And in the fever dream of her delirium, she thinks she feels it: a soothing hand on her forehead, gentle as a mother's hand brushing over the brow of a sleeping child, and soon her dreams are filled with sunlight and smiling faces, and Obito as she remembers him, hugging her tight and telling her everything will be okay.


	8. Trust

.

.

They walk together every night, because Rin claims she is stir crazy and because Obito doesn't trust her not to run off.

But still: her hand is warm in his when he activates the kamui, and when he walks beside her, he feels content.

xXx

.

"You've been watching me sleep," Rin says, almost out from nowhere, and Obito glances back at her, surprised. It is still early evening, the trees rustling quietly and the path dappled with shadows of leaves. He manages to collect himself, jeering.

"You must be mistaken. I have better things to do with my time."

"It's creepier when you lie about it," Rin says. Dangerous, in her situation, except that she seems to know it's okay to tease him, even if he shoots her an irritated glare. "I saw you last night. You were standing by my bed."

"You were having nightmares," Obito says. He taps the side of his mask, knowingly. "I used my Tsukuyomi on you."

"Oh," Rin says. She looks up at him again. "Then why did you lie?"

Few people can catch Obito off-guard. He has faced kages and armies both, able to read through several layers of deception and manipulate others to serve his own ends. But for some reason he can't do this with Rin, and he is just short of stammering and staring at her like an idiot child. "I did not lie," Obito says.

"You said you weren't watching me-"

"As I said," Obito says. "You were having a nightmare. It disturbed my concentration. I only meant to rectify it."

"Okay, okay," Rin says, and he realizes she is teasing him. He glares down at her, but she laughs, touching his arm.

xXx

.

His alliance with Kabuto worries him. He is staring intently at his battle plans, mulling his options over, when Rin sits on the edge of the table, frowning.

"What's wrong?" she says, and she leans over the maps spread out on the desk, intricate battle formations and guerilla tactics.

"Nothing," Obito says, and he catches the doubtful look on her face. "Everything," he says, and Rin stands behind him, leaning forward and touching his back.

He doesn't tell her about the war. She knows enough - that they are to be engaged in battle, that he has baited the five allied nations and threatened war - but he does not tell her about the Moon's Eye, letting the more normal reasons of profit and greed color the rest of his actions.

"Are you allowed to talk about it?" she asks, and he feels her rub soothing circles by the nape of his neck, and Obito has to remind himself that Rin has always been this way, touching others as easily as most people would smile or shake hands.

"I am trying to concentrate," Obito says, and he is sorry to feel her hand withdraw, watching her sit back on the table, curious. He glances back up at her, then smooths the maps down on the table.

"I formed an alliance with someone I do not trust, and I am worried my plans will suffer because of it."

She nods knowingly, and Obito is grateful she does not ask too many questions. "Do you remember Yakushi Kabuto?" Obito asks.

"Who?"

"The man who brought you here." _The man who brought you back to life_.

"The man who looked like a snake?"

Obito nods, tiredly. "Yes."

She is worried about him. Carefully, she stands up again and presses her hand against his shoulder, and it's a soothing, familiar gesture, the sense-memory of his body recalling failed missions and humiliating fights, Rin sitting beside him on the sidelines and bandaging the scrapes on his hands.

"Do not trust him," Obito says, and he searches her eyes. "He will lie to you. He will poison your mind. Promise me," Obito says, and Rin nods.

This is the life he imagines for her: one without war. Without pain. With the Moon's Eye, she will live and laugh, will have children and grandchildren.

He imagines her life, and he pictures her and Kakashi, the two of them bathed in yellow sunlight. Smiling up at each other, walking hand-in-hand.


	9. Broken Glass

.

.

In the compound, Kabuto glides forward, his shadow cutting across the orange torchlight flickering down the corridor. Though Tobi made no mention of his little gift, Kabuto is curious: were they getting along? Were they faring better? He dampens his chakra, blending into walls and using his sage techniques to melt into his surroundings. Even Tobi can't tell he's here, and it's just as well. He is curious, and eager to start his observations.

"She's not allowed here," one of the Zetsus says, and Kabuto's mouth stretches into a grin. "She stays by the living quarters, mostly. Why?"

"Just...curious," Kabuto says, and he smiles, savoring the Zetsu's confusion.

He slithers. Curls up in darkness to watch with slitted eyes. He sees them walking in the courtyard, and it is truly as if they were a pair of lovers. How sweet, Kabuto thinks, and he feels his tongue flick, involuntarily. How terribly, _tragically, _utterly sad.

xXx

.

It's raining outside, and Rin sits in front of the open window, watching the sheets of rain and the the gray frayed clouds rolling with thunder. Oddly, she is disappointed they can't go for their walk, and that disappointment confuses her.

She has learned, as every other chuunin has learned, that captive nin were at risk of identifying with their captors. Some have even turned rogue, missing nin. She frowns, staring out through the gray slate of sky, and thinks this doesn't feel like that. She doesn't know enough about his plans, nor enough about the political conflicts surrounding them. But there is something about him that feels familiar. Comfortable, somehow, as if they've spent years together.

She is deep in thought, staring out the window, when she hears a soft knock at the door.

"May I come in?" the man says, and Rin nods, pushing back a strand of hair and rising.

"Madara-san?"

He looks at her, and through the eyelet of his mask she sees his sharingan is inactive. "You are not a threat," he says, as if reading her thoughts, and Rin nods, crossing her arms.

He walks to stand beside her at the window. "A shame," he says, and Rin glances up at him. "I know how much you look forward to your daily walk."

"It's okay," Rin says. She leans against the window sill, looking outward. "It's good when it rains. It makes the sunshine brighter."

He looks at her oddly, and Rin laughs, tucking back a strand of hair behind her ear.

There is a comfortable silence. The rain falls, a billowing curtain on a gust of wind, and it's as if the room is rendered entirely in grayscale, dark and devoid of color except for the hint of orange at his mask.

"I am leaving," he says, and he turns to look at her. "Tonight we stand at the eve of battle, and there are preparations that must be made."

"Will you be gone long?" Rin says.

"Perhaps," he says, and he looks out again, into the darkness and the falling rain. "I wanted to see you first, before I left. To make sure I had said goodbye."

There is a strange finality to his words, and Rin looks up at him, worried and hugging her arms. He seems to catch her look, because his expression softens. A shaft of watery light falls from the square of the window, and he reaches a hand out, as if to stroke her cheek.

"Be safe," he says, and he stops just short of touching her, lowering his arm. "I hope to return to you, soon."

xXx

.

There are footsteps running down the corridor.

"Kabuto!" Zetsu chases after him, panicked. "You can't do this! Tobi will get mad-"

The strike with his tail is enough to subdue him, breaking his neck with a sickening crack. A shame, Kabuto thinks. The Zetsus simply lack the strength.

She's sitting in her room, reading a book, when Kabuto lets himself appear out from the shadows.

"I'm sorry to bother you," Kabuto says, and she lets out a startled sound. "I see you are doing well. Now, now," Kabuto says, as he sees her edging toward the door. "I mean no harm. I take it Madara-sama has told you to stay away from me. With good reason, of course."

"What do you want?" Rin says. Kabuto grins.

"So suspicious! And yet you're not suspicious at all of the man who's keeping you here," Kabuto says, and he spreads his hands. "I only wish to talk."

He glides around the room, taking in his surroundings. "Isn't it strange," Kabuto says, and he grins up at her. "That you've been spending so much time here, and yet you don't know what it is we do?"

He walks toward the window. The moon is a silver coin gleaming in the darkness, and Kabuto turns, smiling.

"Well," Kabuto says. "Perhaps I should enlighten you."

The Moon's Eye plan. So ridiculous in its idealism, terrifying in its application. When the Zetsus had told her about the plan originally, she had dismissed it as some childish fantasy. "I assure you, it is not," Kabuto says, and he smiles. "He means to enslave the world."

He waits, letting the gravity of his words sink in, while she stares at him, dully. "I don't believe you," Rin says.

Kabuto laughs. "Of course you don't," Kabuto says. "Perhaps I should just show you."

xXx

.

She doesn't know why she's following him, hugging her arms and walking down the corridor, but it's true, she's never been in this part of the compound, and she doesn't think the man will harm her. "I don't understand," Rin says, again. "If you don't agree with his plans, then why are you helping him?"

"Let's just say, it's beneficial to my own interests," Kabuto says, and he looks up at her, grinning. "Besides. It helps break up the tedium, helping him win."

Her footsteps echo as she descends down the narrow staircase, the orange light from the lantern bouncing on the dark stone walls, when they stop suddenly, Kabuto turning and holding out his light.

"I must warn you, what you're about to see might be...a tad disturbing."

"Just show me," Rin says, and Kabuto smiles.

The door opens to the laboratory, the bright square of light from the corridor cutting a thick rectangle through the darkness. He moves, flipping on a switch, and the flourescent lights hum, flickering slightly before illuminating the room.

Everything looks cold. Sterile. There is an operating table and the sterile work bench, and the thick dark curtain covering the wall.

"Have you heard," Kabuto says, conversationally, "About the Uchiha massacre? Of course you haven't," Kabuto says. "You could say it happened before your time."

"I don't understand," Rin says, and Kabuto grins, pausing to pull back the curtains.

Wall-to-wall jars, sharingan eyes staring at her, suspended in amber liquid.

"What is this?" Rin says. Kabuto grins.

"The tragedy of the Uchiha massacre," Kabuto says. "An entire clan, wiped out in a single night. He clearly killed them for their eyes. And I am not lying when I tell you, this is not the worst of all that he has done."

The eyes bob in thin liquid, staring at her obscenely. She thinks of Obito, and how she had taken out his eye. Trapped under the boulder, he had felt no pain until she started it, digging her thumbs into his socket, severing the nerves and delicate muscles around his eye...

Her stomach lurches. She starts to throw up.

"Oh dear," Kabuto says. "A little too much to stomach, I see?"

"He wouldn't," Rin says. Her face is pale. "He isn't like that! He wouldn't-"

"Do you actually know?" Kabuto says. He bends toward her, whispering into her ear.

"Haven't you wondered to yourself, why it is he's keeping you here?"

Rin's eyes widen. She looks up at Kabuto, stricken.

"Yes," Kabuto says, lets the syllable elongate into a menacing hiss. "You tell yourself he keeps you here because you know too much. Because you've seen the place of his secret base. But what's the real reason?" Kabuto says, and his eyes travel up and down her body.

"What do you suppose he wants to do?"

xXx

.

She runs. Lurching forward, turning hard and feet slamming against the corridor.

"Rin-chan." The Zetsus turn, watching her. "Rin-chan! What's wrong?"

"Tobi!" White Zetsu looks up, merging with the ground by Obito's feet. "Rin is starting to leave!"

Rin sprints. The corridors twist and turn like mazes but he told her there were exits. He told her there was a way out...

The room swirls, distorts, and suddenly he's grabbing her, wrenching her arm.

"No!" Rin says. She breaks free but Obito grabs her, yanking her back. "Let me go!"

In the darkness, Kabuto grins.

xXx

.

"You killed them!" Rin says. She struggles in his grip. "I saw it! You killed them!"

"Who?" Obito says, and he grips her tighter. "_Who?_"

"The Uchiha," Rin says, and she feels his grip lessen. "I saw them. I saw everything. Thousands of eyes..."

"How did you find them?" Obito says. He shakes her. "_How_?"

"It doesn't matter," Rin says. "You're crazy. I heard about your plans, you're evil! You're sick! Killing everybody, hurting all those people-"

And then the words are caught, trapped in the recesses of her throat.

"Genjutsu," he says, and he steps forward. "I can't have you panicking like that. Not until I can explain it to you."

Rin's eyes are wide. Her heart is pounding, slamming against her ribs.

He reaches a hand, cups her face. "Let me show you," he says, and he leans forward.

The genjutsu breaks. She slams her chakra into him and runs, breaking his hold and lurching down the corridor.

Feet pound as she flies down the narrow steps, searching for the laboratory. The eyes are his source of power, and she runs, flinging the door open. Curtains tear back and she grabs the jars frantically, shattering them against the concrete floor.

The air twists, and he's _right there_, one strong arm grabbing hers and yanking her back. "What do you think you're doing?" he says.

She manages to grip more jars from the shelf, jars breaking and shards of glass bouncing upwards, eyeballs rolling like innards in puddles of yellow liquid, before he pulls her back, her foot catching the trailing nerve of a detached eye and slipping on the surface. She struggles. He's holding her and he can't phase through. She knows this, shoving chakra into the wound of his shoulder.

Pain. He staggers back, startled, and Rin grabs a mason jar, the only weapon she can find, and slams it hard against the side of his mask. The side of the jar cracks his jaw with sickening contact, and the mask spins, then clatters. Rin's eyes widen.

Everything slows. Around her, things seem to be moving in slow motion: the splash of the liquid from the broken jars, the spray of fractured glass, smashing against the concrete. The eyes roll obscenely, their translucent white sclera picking up the dirt on the ground, and she hears the sound of the mask, clattering heavily.

"No," Rin says. And then,

"Obito."

And Obito looks at her, the light from the swinging bulb catching his scars.


	10. The End

_._

_._

_Behind her, Kakashi is crying. She's never seen Kakashi be anything other than calm or mildly irritated, so the sound is disconcerting. "Don't cry, Kakashi," Obito says, and Rin's hands are shaking, because she's only seen this once before and she isn't sure what she's supposed to do. "It'll be okay."_

_It's quiet in the cave. Except for Kakashi's soft, stifled sobs and Obito's harsh breathing, there's no other sound here, and Rin concentrates, focusing her chakra into the tips of her fingers. "Okay," Rin says, and she looks at Kakashi, nodding to him. "I want you to hold Kakashi's hand."_

_Kakashi scoots over and Obito takes it, and Rin gently peels the lid back. Obito steels himself. She sees his grip tighten._

_"It's okay," Rin says, and the beam of chakra flares. Obito makes a noise, a strangled sort of sound, and Kakashi squeezes his eyes._

_Blood trickles down the sides of Obito's face, and Obito breathes, hard._

_"It's okay," Rin says, and she blinks, pushing back tears. "Obito...this is going to hurt."_

_"Just do it," Obito says, and Rin does, pinching the globe of his eye squeezing out of the socket. The tissue snaps with a sickening wetness, and Kakashi cries harder, clutching Obito's hand._

_"Okay, Kakashi." Rin turns. "Kakashi we have to do this, otherwise the eye's gonna go to waste-"_

_"Rin," Obito says, and Rin's jaw tightens. She pushes Kakashi's bandage back. She isn't sure if she's doing it right, but Kakashi winces and his eyes begin to tear, and when he looks at her, he does so with both open eyes._

_"Okay. How's your vision?"_

_"Fine."_

_Kakashi's voice is shaky. There is a sound. Rock nin, coming after them._

_She clasps Obito's hand into her lap, and the skin feels cold. Clammy. Obito is breathing hard, a thin line of blood trickling down the side of his eyelid. "Rin," Obito says. His hand is shaking. "Rin."_

_"It's okay," Rin says. She bends forward, pressing her forehead against his. "It's okay. It's okay."_

_She starts to cry. Outside, there are sounds of fighting. Sounds of metal clashing against metal, men crying out. The chidori, bursting and exploding through the air._

_The rocks begin to crumble and Kakashi's head pops forward._

_"It's starting to collapse," Kakashi says. "We have to leave, now."_

_"Rin," Obito says._

_She looks at him. He weakly squeezes her hand._

xXx

.

"Obito."

They stare at each other from across the shattered glass, the thin yellow liquid puddling at their feet.

"Rin," Obito says. He reaches out toward her, about to cup her cheek, when she flinches away.

The action hurts him. He moves, then composes himself, walking slowly to retrieve his mask.

"They're dead," Obito says, and he adjusts his mask. He lifts his head, sharingan eye opening. "Why should it matter what I do with them?"

"You killed them," Rin says.

"Yes" Obito says. "But things were already set in motion. I was only there to take the opportunity."

"You killed them," Rin says, again. "You murdered them - an entire clan!"

"They murdered themselves," Obito says. "Foolish. Weak. Self-serving in-fighting! The Uchiha were on a path to self-destruction. It was better that an Uchiha would finish it. Not an outsider," Obito says. "Not someone who would take advantage of our clan."

"And this isn't taking advantage?" Rin says. Obito's eyes narrow.

"You already know that I work alone. I need them. I cannot accomplish this task without them."

"What task?" Rin says. "Enslaving the world and taking away their free will?"

"No," Obito says, and his eye narrows.

"To bring about an everlasting peace."

Rin swallows. Glass crunches beneath his feet as he walks, and Rin hugs herself, swallowing, hard. "It does not matter if you hate me," Obito says, quietly. "I will succeed, and when I do you will be happy. Everyone will," Obito says, and Rin closes her eyes.

xXx

.

He lets her escape. She runs, feet trampling through the underbrush, running off in some unknown direction, hell-bent to escape. Obito watches her from the tower, the small, desperate figure charging forward and being swallowed up into the horizon. Behind him, Kabuto hovers, a small smile on his lips.

"What happened?" Kabuto says, and Obito turns, his sharingan spinning. "I thought you two were getting along."

"Can you release it?" Obito asks. He turns to look at him, wearily.

"The resurrection technique. Can it be done?"

"No," Kabuto says, and his lips part into a sickening smile. "Well, you can always kill her, yourself," Kabuto says. "Unlike the others, she won't come back. It might even be easier that way."

Obito says nothing. Outside, the clouds begin to part, the jagged rocks gleaming and being washed with sun.


	11. Epilogue

.

.

**Epilogue**

.

The days are quiet. Broad strokes of sunlight fall onto green hills, and tall grasses bend serenely in the wind. During the war, the valley had been dark and covered with dead bodies, the choking stench of sulfur and smoke clogging a cold and overcast sky. The breeze mocks him. He stands, pulling his cloak over his shoulder.

He does not win the war.

She finds him two months later, deep in a cave nestled between the mountains of Takigakure. Weak, right arm torn and nearly blind in his remaining eye, Obito looks up toward the sound of her footsteps - the sound of which he would recognize anywhere - and lifts his face toward the splash of filthy light filtering through the corners.

"They told me I died," Rin says, and she sits heavily beside him. She doesn't ask any questions, just waits with him, two silhouettes at the mouth of the cave.

xXx

.

Because she has nowhere else to go, Rin follows him. Obito tries telling her flatly that she is a nuisance to him, she should go somewhere else, but Rin looks at him with hurt in her eyes, and he turns away again, angry and disgusted with himself.

"You're not going to tell me what happened, are you?" she says, and Obito realizes he owes her at least that much. That if he tells her, she might just go.

He looks up at her, and through the haze of his vision, he can see the rectangle of light that slowly drifts over her, framing her body like a portrait and her hair catching the muted light. If he had his sharingan, he would tip her head back, would push himself into her senses and pour into her all his memories, his heartbreak. All the pain and uncertainty and things that he has seen.

But he doesn't. Words do not come easily to him, sticking to his throat as if swallowing pieces of old dried bread, and it's only when Rin sits close to him, her hand pressing against his shoulder, that he speaks:

"I loved you," he says.

"And then I saw you die."

She doesn't say anything. Silently, she sits as close as she dares to his broken body, then leans against him, closing her eyes.

xXx

.

Hashirama's cells don't grow back.

The days after the war are quiet, and Obito retreats back into himself, silent in the face of his greatest failure. The world believes he's dead, and shinobi across the allied nations rejoice, lighting fireworks and tossing paper confetti into the air.

He does one-handed pushups and tries to get back a modicum of his former strength, but his body fails him, and without the sharingan, he cannot do even the simplest of ninjutsu. Rin watches, heart in her mouth, as Obito tries and trains even as his wounds split and seep blood underneath his bandages. At night, he sleeps for hours, his body exhausted from the years spent without rest. Sometimes, he wakes and feels Rin's fingers gently combing through his scalp; other times he opens his eyes and sees her sleeping on a chair across from him.

"Why are you here?" Obito says, and Rin looks up at him, bitter, broken man, leaning against the tabletop and trying to preserve what little dignity he has left. "Why have you not left?"

Rin says nothing, just rises to stand beside him. "I do not want your pity," Obito says.

"It isn't pity," Rin says, and she proceeds to ignore him, leaving him to stew in his own thoughts.

That night, he limps back to his room and sees her lying in his bed, back toward him and staring resolutely at the wall.

"Remember when we were kids?" Rin says. "You cut yourself and you pretended not to get hurt. I was the only one looking out for you."

"So is that what this is?" Obito asks, and after a moment gingerly climbs into the bed, careful to keep their bodies from touching. He lies stiffly beside her and Rin doesn't turn or scoot closer to him. The whole thing, Obito realizes, is pointless, and he turns and tries to go to sleep.

And then he feels it: a hand, small and uncertain, hesitantly reaching out, before carefully touching the side of his waist.

His muscles tense, but as soon as Rin slides closer and her arm drapes around him, he feels himself relax. She feels warm and comforting and good and Obito hates himself for his weakness, feeling as worthless and prostrate as he did when he was a child.

"You're not going to cry, right?" Rin says. Teasing him. "Because I remember the last time we did this, you cried like a baby."

"I was just a child." Obito's voice is tight. Angry, even as old wounds split and tears start to prick at the corners.

Rin says nothing. He feels her relax at his back, hugging him close and bumping her nose into the space beneath his scapula. "I miss that child, you know?" Rin says, finally, and Obito says nothing, feels the slow-boiling rage start to fade and dissipate, until nothing is left except that old longing, sorrow and uncertainty and suffocating loneliness, until he realizes too late that he is crying, old tears and old habits dripping silently down his face.

He feels her shift upwards, dropping a soft kiss at the nape of his neck, before reaching up to brush back the errant strands of hair from his face. He doesn't remember his mother, but her touch feels maternal, gentle and soothing. He falls asleep like this, nestled up in Rin's arms.

xXx

.

She takes to sleeping in his bed. At first it seemed to be out of pity, or out of a strange sense of practicality, two bodies sharing warmth to spite the cold. Soon enough, though, he is used to her pressing up against his back and nudging at the empty spaces between his shoulderblades. Rin has kissed him before, the way he'd seen her kiss the heads of wounded animals or kiss the scraped knees of little boys. He doesn't question it, and he does not take advantage of her kindness. So when one night, she reaches over to kiss the side of his face, it doesn't quite register, not until she tugs at his shoulder until he turns, flat on his back, to face her.

The kiss is gentle. Her lips are soft, and when the kiss deepens it surprises him. He looks up at her and she smiles down at him, and soon enough she's lying on top of him, cradling his face and kissing him again.

Later, she asks him, "You've never kissed anyone before, right?" and Obito just stares at her, caught somewhere between humiliation and a blistering rage, when Rin just laughs at him and bumps her head against his shoulder. He doesn't know how to explain it to her: how the years spent working toward his goal were the only thing to him, knowing she would be alive in a world without pain, how that was enough to fortify him.

Rin touches the scars on his face, then says something teasing about how such a badass ninja keeps blushing in front of her, and Obito just stares up at her, flabbergasted and unsure how to respond, when she rocks against him and breathes into his ear.

If Obito is grateful about one thing, it's that those boulders didn't quite crush the entire right side of his body, more like the right third of it, and Rin giggles and laughs and then gasps at the feel of him, before laughing and telling him to be careful, his cock might fall off the way his arm did, and Obito decides he should work a little bit harder.

(She is mid-sentence, about to ask wickedly if there is a reason why Zetsu has nothing _down there_, when he gives her one harsh thrust that makes her mouth pop open, and she just gasps and groans and clutches at him after.)

xXx

.

Years pass. Pretty soon the allied nations stop looking for him.

He is still on wanted posters. His face, scarred and menacing, is still plastered on the front page of every bingo book in every country. The perpetrator of genocide. He is a ghost, a specter, sightings of a man robed in black appearing every once in a while, a bogeyman that keep children from falling asleep.

"I saw him," the shopkeeper says, a whispered confession, as Obito stands impassively and pays for their meal. "He was dressed in black and he was roaming the fields to the west of us. They say he weeps tears of blood."

"How awful," Rin says, and Obito doesn't quite roll his eyes.

Later, he sits in the dark and thinks of the people he's killed, when Rin stands beside him, leaning his body against her belly and chest and lets her arms fall across his shoulders. Before, it didn't matter who he killed, because in the next world, they would all be brought back. But he's failed, and he cannot bring anyone back.

It is the only thing that tempers their happiness. Sometimes, he lies awake at night and thinks about the things he's done, and it's as if the weight of a thousand boulders comes crashing down on him. "I can still try," Obito says.

"I can still save them."

"Just stop," Rin says. "Stop."

And Obito looks up at her, one milky eye turning upward.

"You don't have to keep fighting anymore."

It isn't her place to forgive him, though she's sobbed and raged for days.

xXx

.

Beyond the window, the sky is an agitated gray. Rain falls, and soon the staccato sound of precipitation overtakes the silence, thunder rolling, a deafening sound.

They make love in the shadows of the raindrops. Pleasure crests and ebbs, a constant movement of muscle and damp skin, when he feels her reach out a hand and cup the side of his face. Dry thumbs catch the raised marks of scars in a motion like turning fans, and it's a gesture more intimate than this, two souls converging in the dark.

He watches her sleep. He places his hand at the center of her back, the soft landscape of skin and old memories, the only mote of peace in an imperfect world.

end.


End file.
